Fruit techniques question

[65chevy11]

I'm making a cherry wheat and a blueberry cream this weekend and wanted to know some of the better techniques with the fruit. I'm going to buy frozen fruit and use about 1.6 to 2.0 lbs of fruit per gallon. I was thinking about blending the fruit and just adding it to secondary (unboiled since it's going in beer that has alcohol allready). Would blending these particular fruits be okay when it comes to the flavor profile or maybe just smash them and add.

Thanx

:rockin:

 

[Pappers_]

I've pureed cherry when making a cherry stout and it worked well.

 

[SilentAutumn]

I'm making a cherry wheat and a blueberry cream this weekend and wanted to know some of the better techniques with the fruit. I'm going to buy frozen fruit and use about 1.6 to 2.0 lbs of fruit per gallon. I was thinking about blending the fruit and just adding it to secondary (unboiled since it's going in beer that has alcohol allready). Would blending these particular fruits be okay when it comes to the flavor profile or maybe just smash them and add.

Thanx

:rockin:

I'm working on a chocolate porter where I added 5.25# of raspberries. I wasn't worried about wild yeast so much as I was worried about mold. I put the berries in 2 ziplocs (gallon size) and split a fifth of vodka between the two. I would shake and coat the berries every 15-20 minutes for 4 hours. Drained the vodka off, then froze over night to break down cell walls. Thawed to room temp, then berries went into a grain bag and into my primary (after a week of fermentation). I'll rack to secondary, but I put the berries in a bag to try to contain the seeds. If you're doing blueberries, I wouldn't worry about freezing.

I searched these forums a lot before adding the raspberries and a vodka soak seemed like a standard, common practice.

I make big batches of whiskey cordial with fruit every once and a while and I know the whiskey kills everything off and prohibits all growth. No problem letting it sit for 3 weeks in a loosely closed pot even with all the sugar added. But with beer? I just don't know if my 5-6% ABV beer can prohibit everything. So why risk it? In my younger days, I'd have old bottles sitting on the counter. Every so often, one would get some funky mold in it.

Previously, I've pureed the fruit, then pasteurized on the stove. I've been hit with some haze in my beer (didn't use any additives to try to take it out either though). Depending on the beer, clarity is a give or take with me. I've never had an infection

 

[brewd00d]

I made a raspberry wheat a while back which tasted effing awesome. Ive learned that, if you threw them into the boil, you will get flavor of the fruit but not so much of the sweetness (and/or during active fermentation) but when you put them in the secondary (which is the way i did it) the shorter amount of time you keep the fruit in there (2 days for ex) the sweeter the beer will be. The longer obviously the beer will retain some sweetness but not so much.

Another thing to consider is if you are kegging the beer. If you bottle, you might risk the change of bottle explosion because of the extra sugars in the fruit, on top of the priming sugar you add to carbonate the beer. This is why you have the advantage of doing fruit beers if you keg.

 

[Pappers_]

Another thing to consider is if you are kegging the beer. If you bottle, you might risk the change of bottle explosion because of the extra sugars in the fruit, on top of the priming sugar you add to carbonate the beer. This is why you have the advantage of doing fruit beers if you keg.

Here's another take on it. A well-tried practice is to:

1. let the beer ferment to completion
2. rack the beer over fruit in a secondary fermentation vessel
3. fermentation will begin again as the yeast eat the fruit sugars
4. when the secondary fermentation is complete, bottle

There is no danger of bottle bombs with this method.

 

[GHC007]

Just recently made a Raspberry Ale and did exactly what Pappers mentioned. Ferment, racked on top of raspberries for 7 days then bottled. No problems what so ever. The yeasties really had their way with them before I bottled.

Also, I did a lot of research on the best way to use the berries. Found that buying either fresh berries or frozen organic was the way to go. Seems you're just looking for no added sugars or anything like that. I didnt boil, vodka soak or blend them, I just let them thaw and racked right on top without any problems.

 

[wolverinebrewer]

Just recently made a Raspberry Ale and did exactly what Pappers mentioned. Ferment, racked on top of raspberries for 7 days then bottled. No problems what so ever. The yeasties really had their way with them before I bottled.

Also, I did a lot of research on the best way to use the berries. Found that buying either fresh berries or frozen organic was the way to go. Seems you're just looking for no added sugars or anything like that. I didnt boil, vodka soak or blend them, I just let them thaw and racked right on top without any problems.

+2 to Pappers method. I just finished up drinking my first ever raspberry red ale. It was a great brew and got a 33 at the 2011 WEB. Racked on top of 4 lbs. whole frozen raspberries after fermentation was done. I let it sit another week before bottling.
Also tried a strawberry blond today after 8 days bottling and that also was superb. Very crisp. This was racked onto 4 lbs strawberries for the 4th week of fermentation. I used about a 1/2 cup of vodka just to coat them and drained off. I based it off of BM's Centennial blond. Yes, Revvy I wasted a beer drinking it early but the rest will sit for two more weeks.

 

[65chevy11]

Thanx for some ideas, i'm also at the moment fermenting a strawberry blonde and probably going to use 6lb. of strawberries sliced not smashed. I"ve heard that if you smash strawberries that it could be to intense of a flavor

 

[jaycount]

For my peach ale, I added the peaches/apricots straight to the fermenter from the cans. I let the beer sit in primary for about 7 days then added the fruit and let it sit for about another 14. I didn't have enough open fermenters to xfer to a secondary.

It came out ok, although peaches are a hard fruit to extract flavoring from so it's not very strong. I still think it came out very good

 

[65chevy11]

I like the idea of blending and pasteurizing. I have some gelatin finings, would that take the haze out if i did that and do a cold crash despite the fact that your heating the fruit up?

 

[wolverinebrewer]

I like the idea of blending and pasteurizing. I have some gelatin finings, would that take the haze out if i did that and do a cold crash despite the fact that your heating the fruit up?

I don't see the need to heat up the fruit. Just throw them in a second vessel and rack on top. I have never had haze in a fruit beer.